Lahore Terror Survivors Warn Sri Lanka Squad Amid Pakistan Security Crisis

While describing their ordeal following a terror attack on the team bus during the 2009 tour of Pakistan as a "horrifying moment", Sri Lanka's pace great Chaminda Vaas and all-rounder Suranga Lakmal advised the players to be strong and careful, a report said on Thursday.

Sri Lanka's team bus came under heavy gunfire on the way to day three of the Lahore Test in 2009, leaving several players and an umpire injured. Several policemen who were providing security for the team were killed in the attack. The tour was abandoned, the shaken squad airlifted from an army base to Colombo, and Pakistan was frozen out of hosting international cricket for almost a decade.

The current Sri Lankan side was left rattled this week after a suicide bombing in Islamabad -- just 25 kilometres from their hotel -- killed 12 people. The players first pushed to abandon the tour, but after assurances from the Pakistan government, several agreed to stay put. Yet eight senior players still dug their heels in, forcing SLC to put replacements on standby.

After a marathon night of negotiations, all eventually agreed to remain, prompting the Pakistan Cricket Board to reshuffle fixtures and move matches from Lahore to Rawalpindi.

Several members of the 2009 squad shared their memories with Telecom Asia Sport, painting a grim picture of déjà vu. For veteran seamer Chaminda Vaas -- Sri Lanka's most prolific fast bowler -- the flashbacks remain vivid.

"Looking back, we are all grateful nothing worse happened," Vaas told Telecom Asia Sport (www.telecomasia.net). "But for the current boys, it won't be easy mentally. At the back of your mind, you're always thinking about safety," said www.telecomasia.net on Thursday.

He said the short commute from hotel to ground -- normally filled with banter and team chatter -- becomes "the tensest passage of play".

Many in Sri Lanka believe the team should stay on, recalling how a combined India-Pakistan XI toured Colombo before the 1996 World Cup after Australia and West Indies refused to visit, the report said.

"Pakistan has been our friend in need, no doubt," Vaas was quoted as saying in the report. "People fear that teams might stop touring there again if Sri Lanka pulls the plug. It's a delicate issue -- you need to handle it with soft hands."

While Vaas was in the twilight of his career in 2009, for Suranga Lakmal it was his maiden overseas trip -- and one that left scars that refuse to fade. "I still carry the scars of that day," Lakmal, now living in Australia, told Telecom Asia Sport (www.telecomasia.net).

Shrapnel embedded in his legs forced him to delay surgery, with doctors warning he would miss months of cricket. Lakmal carried on bowling for Sri Lanka, later for Derbyshire in county cricket, and now in Australian leagues -- but the price has been steep. "As a result, I can't get MRI scans and every time I pass airport security the metal detectors hold me up," he said. "I still travel with a whole bunch of medical certificates," Lakmal told www.telecomasia.net from Australia.

Lakmal said he declined an opportunity to tour Pakistan in 2017. "My mind was made up. It's very hard to focus on cricket after something like that. You're not in the right frame of mind -- you keep thinking of your family and your parents."

- IANS